Words of a Blood Oath
by Nosferatank
Summary: Lord Captain Brigid, upon seeing a palace guard accompanied by a youth and hearing the queen's orders to train him for a position in the South Quarter, wondered what the hell Lady Krul was up to.
1. Chapter 1

Lord Captain Brigid, upon seeing a palace guard accompanied by a youth and hearing the queen's orders to train him for a position in the South Quarter, wondered what the hell Lady Krul was up to. Outwardly, she simply nodded and sent the palace guard on his way, turning to the kid he brought in.

He was young, certainly. Newly turned, with human-colored eyes and the still budging fangs of a fledgeling, he couldn't be any older than twelve. He was eyeing her distrustfully, fists clenched at the hem of the livestock uniform he wore.

Feeling the awkwardness of the staring, Brigid turned away, intending to lead him where he was to live and train.

"I'm not going to question your motives or the queen's schemes, no need to be so tense." She began, turning her head back to face the boy behind her. "You'll be living and training here for the next four years, better get used to it."

The boy looked like a strange mix of angry and terrified, and knowing how young he was, so new he didn't even have his own scent yet, Brigid softened her predatory stance into something lighter and more approachable, if only just.

"What's your name, kid?"

The word slipped like venom from his throat.

"Mikaela Hyakuya."

"Right then, Hyakuya. Barracks are this way."

As she led him towards the barracks, Brigid explained.

"You won't actually be pounding the streets until I've gotten a few years of combat training in you. Not to mention you need the time to grow into power: you're pretty damn young, at this point you'd not be able to do much. Besides-" She continued, hoping to lighten the rather tense mood- "You could stand to be a bit taller.

Now that got her a huff of irritation, and Brigid grinned at her success. Part of the reason she was so successful as an organizer and guard captain was the camaraderie she encouraged among her underlings and herself; there was a reason her squadron was the group most selected for outside missions. Brigid could tell by uniform and by age that Mikaela held no love for vampires, but at least she hoped he would be tolerable around large groups of guard.

The captain unlocked the door to the barracks and strode down to the door at the very end, Mikaela's feet pattering rapidly to keep up with her.

"This room is the storage for unused weapons and uniforms. Aside from uniforms though you'll need to provide yourself with your own clothes."

She glanced back at him. "I don't think you have anything else, do you? Give me a bit."

Promptly, Brigid entered the room and started digging through a bin of casual clothes, left behind by vampires that retired from the guard. The only things small enough were a pair of slacks and a woolen turtleneck that belonged to a rather petite woman before she left.

Hopefully she wouldn't care too particularly.

Brigid stepped out of the room and closed the door before turning around and gifting Mikaela with a faceful of sweater. He sputtered indignantly as he tried to get the wool un-caught from his tiny fangs.

"You can change once we get to your room." Brigid informed him before sweeping off, forcing him to follow.

At their destination, Brigid continued her tour.

"This is my room and office. If you need anything, come here: office hours are anytime I'm here and not asleep."

Finally, after passing rows of doors, Brigid stopped at one. "This'll be your room. Rules are no scentmarking outside the doorframe, but that's about it. There's no signs, but eventually you'll learn to identify which room belongs to who."

"Any questions?" Brigid ended. Mikaela shook his head.

"Alright then, I'll see you early tomorrow morning for training. Don't be late."

Brigid waved at him as she left, completely unsurprised when he didn't return the gesture.

When she finally returned to her own office, Brigid allowed herself to sigh. She didn't know what the hell Krul was scheming; whatever it was, the consequences were over Brigid's head. It was the old noble's nature to always be twelve steps ahead, after all. Still, the queen wanted him trained and later stationed here as a guard, so Brigid would follow that command. Maybe, give or take a couple decades, she could get him feeling more comfortable around her and other vampires; at least enough to make her job much easier.

Brigid's thoughts were interrupted by a sudden knock on her door. She sniffed, instantly knowing the scent of the vampire out in the hall. Brigid opened the door, greeted with the sight of a tall, black haired vampire with an impish look to his face.

"Heya Cap." He greeted, stepping over the threshold uninvited.

Brigid sighed, and returned the greeting. "Hey, Pogo. What brings you here?"

Pogo's smile didn't budge at the least. "I was just wondering who the squirt was. Saw you giving him the tour, you can't mean to accept a trainee that young, do ya?"

"Yeah, I kind of do. Queen's orders."

At that Pogo's dark eyes hardened, and Brigid amended her statement.

"I have no intention of sending him out until he's at least fifteen. He's completely untrained, so he needs to learn."

"Good. But a kid who's not fully turned yet? Even after training him up he'd be hard-pressed to spar with the rest of us, considering how outclassed he'll be in terms of raw strength."

Brigid quirked a blonde brow. "Good thing humans are unlikely to find this place and Horsemen are dumber than a sack of stones, yeah?"

Pogo laughed in response. "Oh, true, true. It's not like our competition is much to worry about, really. Well, if that's it, drinks are on me today so I'm heading to the common room. You coming?"

"Nah, I think I'll stay and try and puzzle out a training routine for the Mikaela."

She paused for a moment. "Oh, before you leave, if you see the kid, try and keep him out of trouble? I want him to integrate smoothly with the rest of us, but I don't think he's looking to make friends."

"Your will be done, my Lord Captain!" Pogo exclaimed as he saluted sarcastically.

His escape was swift, but Brigid managed to bean him on the skull with a crumpled paper ball anyways.

—

Morning came, as always, with distaste from Brigid. Unfortunately for her and every other guard in the city, since they were both patrolling human settlements and guarding against potential human invasion, they had to adjust to the awkward rhythms of human sleep patterns.

After changing into her Captain's uniform and downing a small vial of heavily fermented blood confiscated from the soldier's personal stashes in order to give herself an energy boost, Brigid slung her broadsword over her back and strode out to door. Her first order of business was to give an unpleasant wake up call to her newest apprentice. Earlier Brigid had decided to take him on herself, as from what she could glean from his movements and body type he would be well-suited to the same swordplay styles she used.

Keeping herself on the queen's good side couldn't hurt either, despite Lady Krul's intentions towards the boy being completely unknown to Brigid.

Approaching Mikaela's door, Brigid raised her fingers to her mouth, careful to avoid cutting herself on her fangs, in preparation for the time-honored method of waking up newbies the first morning. The whistle that erupted from her bounced around the hallway, penetrating the sensitive ears of the other vampires. Brigid even heard a few thumps and groans from other guards next door to Hyakuya.

"Up and at 'em, Sunshine! No time to waste!" The captain shouted at the door.

To her surprise, the door opened to a fully-dressed and prepared Mikaela, dead-looking eyes perturbing Brigid somewhat.

Brigid covered up her surprise with a cough. "Right, then. Today we'll just be covering ground rules and start basic stances. Follow me."

She didn't glance behind her to confirm if he was following or not, but she could certainly hear Mikaela walking behind her. His steps definitely still sounded human, completely unlike the smooth and stalking natural movements of vampires. They'd have to work on that.

"This is the training deck. Feel free to use it anytime with anyone, just don't spar with Tora if you can help it. She fights dirty and I'm guessing you prefer all of your limbs attached to your body." Brigid said as she opened the door to the deck, not missing the manner in which Mikaela gripped his right shoulder.

The deck was a simple room, large and paneled with stone. There were some windows near the rafters that offered a dismal view of the cave systems, and a storage closet with various blunted practice weapons.

There was also a vampire perched in a corner, his dark skin contrasting with his bright fangs as he grinned like a loon.

Brigid groaned "Dammit Pogo, what are you doing here at this hour?"

"What, I can't watch the newbie be initiated?" he shot in return.

"You can, but it doesn't mean your presence is appreciated." Not to mention I don't need you making the kid even more twitchy.

"Just ignore him, he's all hot air." Brigid said to her charge, sending a good-humored scowl Pogo's way.

Turning her attention back to the eerily silent Mikaela, Brigid went through the motions for the first day.

"You ever owned or handled a weapon before, Hyakuya?" Brigid asked as the approached the weapons closet.

At the silent shake of his head, Brigid gestured for him to join her hear the closet.

"Well, at least it means I don't have to break you of any bad habits. Here, hold this for a bit."

She scrutinized the balance of the practice weapon and nodded in satisfaction. "It's a bit long, but you'll grow into it."

Brigid unsheathed her own blade and Mikaela tensed, pupils contracting to slits and hairs on the back of his neck raising. The guard captain slowly lowered her blade to the ground and turned so that the hilt was facing the boy, and she was satisfied to see his hackles lower, though he still remained tense and wary.

She then gave him the spiel that was given to every newbie: Here's how to hold the weapon, no not like that. Never let go of your weapon and don't be afraid to use your claws if need be. On pain of death never let a human keep their weapon in contact with you for more than one and a half seconds.

She showed him some basic stances and blocks, instructing him to "Try and run through those as much as you can."

"Since I'm not free all the time needed, go ahead and use Pogo to supervise."

At said guard's look, Brigid amended. "It'll keep him from causing trouble, at least."

"Well then, I have things to take care of. See you tomorrow, Hyakuya." Brigid bid as she left, hoping that Pogo's natural irreverent openness would get the kid to relax some. She had a feeling it would take immeasurable patience, but she was a vampire. If there was anything Brigid had in excess, it was time.

—  
 **Really, I'm getting inordinately fond of Brigid, despite being an older and less polished original character. Very much uses the "big-sister style" tough love, with a bit of a mother duck influence, but extraordinarily callous to those outside her inner circle and the vampires she's responsible for.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: poor Mika was a bit of an early bloomer. puberty is a real bitch for DFAB folks.**

—

Brigid was honestly quite impressed with her apprentice's progress. In the span of seven months he was already good enough to have mild spars with fully-turned vampires. Of course, his most frequent sparring partner was Pogo, who seemed to have developed a fondness for Mikaela despite his surly attitude. Still, now that she had some time on her hands Brigid was looking forwards to evaluating her trainee and subsequently disabusing him of any notion that he was now an expert with his weapon.

Brigid was unsurprised to see Mikaela waiting for her in the training deck as instructed. If the boy was anything, he was certainly timely. She went through the motions, retrieving the practice blades from their stands in the storage closet. They took their stances and bowed.

"Alright, rules: no biting with the intent of injecting venom. No ripping off limbs. Feel free to use the environment as you wish. Now…" Brigid paused, relishing the tension before a good match.

"Begin!"

Mikaela struck first, and Brigid let him hit her block in order to feel out his strength. She grunted in surprise, just marginally managing to not bend under the immense force behind the strike. There was no way a half-turned child should be this strong.

Despite the boy's overwhelming show of physical strength, Brigid had centuries more of experience. Keeping their blades locked, She struck with her right leg and was gratified to see him jump over it; Pogo had not been neglectful when honing Mikaela's reflexes.

With all his limbs off the ground, Brigid abruptly lashed out and grabbed the side of Mikaela's head; she rather humorously was reminded of wrestling rams to the ground during her human years as a shepherdess. With no way to ground himself, Mikaela hit the ground hard, falling still. Brigid approached, cautiously. She was caught off guard when, tensing for an attack from his blade, she missed the stirring of his feet.

Brigid felt her shin groan under the force of the kick, and quickly used her other leg to stomp on the offending foot kicking at her. Mikaela leapt back to his feet and launched another salvo of sword blows.

And so it went.

A good four hours later, Brigid decided to call is quits when she had effectively treed her trainee in the rafters, and chasing the nimble little bugger around was getting both of them nowhere.

The captain started popping some of her dislocated fingers back into place with sickening snaps while she called up to her apprentice.

"Good job kid, I'm impressed. You can have the day off tomorrow." Fates know I need some time to heal up myself, sweet Odin that kid packs a punch, she thought privately.

Brigid was rather concerned, though, when she noticed him shimmying down a rafter pole excruciatingly slowly, stumbling a bit as he hit the ground. As she approached to take a look, Brigid got close enough to hear his heart beating erratically, lungs gurgling and struggling for air.

She approached him slowly. "Hey, kid, you doin' okay?"

As she gently placed a hand on the wheezing child's shoulders, she felt something strange through his clothes. Pressing harder, Brigid parsed the presence of this and yanked down the back of Mikaela's turtleneck, peering down at the bandages wrapped tightly around his torso.

Mikaela, despite his struggle for breath and the sweat still marring his brow in the cool air, catapulted back from his mentor, looking even more terrified than when Brigid first met the boy. She reared back at the sudden retreat, understanding dawning upon her mind. She marched over, grabbing Mikaela's wrist and hauling him up onto his feet.

"Come with me." Brigid commanded, barely hiding the growl of frustration behind her fangs.

Looking mortified, Mikaela followed.

When he balked at exiting the barrack complex, Brigid grabbed him by the folds of skin behind his neck, scruffing him like a wayward fledgeling.

He remained silent the entire half-hour hike to the West Sector, tension thick enough to choke Brigid. They arrived at the West barracks and Brigid entered without preamble, her white cloak nearly swallowing Mikaela in its sweeping expanse.

She knocked on a door once before barging in, letting her apprentice go and pushing him in front of her to face the vampire in a guard captain's uniform sitting at the desk.

The vampire's head jerked up, their bob of black hair flying before their eyes. Their eyes alit in recognition.

"Ah, Brigid. What brings you here?" They peered at the boy that had Brigid's hand on his shoulder, the white cape hiding most of him from view. "And who is this fledgeling?"

"Morgan, I'm here because of Hyakuya. This dumbass has been doing heavy weapons training for seven months while binding in bandages."

Morgan leaned forwards, a frown on their soft features. "That… is indeed foolish. I assume you came so abruptly in search of proper bindings?"

At Brigid's stiff nod, Morgan disappeared to the dorm off of their office, accompanied by the faint sound of rustling fabric. They stuck their head out, asking that Mikaela get out from the Brigid's cloak so they could see him clearly. Faint red dusting his face, Mikaela complied. Morgan nodded decisively and resumed their digging.

They returned with two binders, handing them to Mikaela, who balled them up and tucked the articles under his arm. Brigid bowed to Morgan before exiting their room, herding her trainee in front of her all the while.

It was faint, barely there, but Brigid heard a soft "Thank you." from in front of her.

—

Years later, Brigid listened in dismay as two days after Lest Karr's ascendancy, a spokeswoman announced the casualties from the Nagoya campaign. She recognized many of the names. Cormag. Glen. Tethys. Bernard. Cassius.

Mikaela.

He was so young, too; not even an adult by human standards.

Brigid reasoned, unsheathed claws scraping against the hilt of her blade, that she would have plenty of opportunity for revenge. For every year her comrades had lived before now, Brigid vowed to take one enemy human life. Young Mikaela would only have fifteen to his name, but Brigid make it bloody, drawn out. It had been a long, long time since she had to spill blood to quiet her dead, but Brigid would do anything she could to make sure her apprentice and her fellow guards would rest, satisfied, in the afterlife.

—  
 **A/N: Poor Brigid has no idea why Mika is so strong, if she thinks about it too much it'll drive her bonkers. Of course she doesn't think of the least likely notion, that he's actually a high-ranking Progenitor. Surely Krul wouldn't be that foolish…**  
 **Young vampires being scuffed like cats courtesy of Nory, god bless them.**  
—


End file.
